O What a Lucky Man

I’m going to be out of town for a week starting Wednesday, so I decided to cram in two high-response blog subjects for the little time I have.

Today, you supply the caption for a strange photo. Tuesday, a Movie Quotes quiz.

Before I get to the caption, though, I can’t help reacting to the story in Sunday’s Morning Call about Mount Airy Casino Resort’s tax assessment, lowest in the state. Reporter Matt Assad used the example of Dauphin County’s Hollywood Casino for comparison.

“While Dauphin County has set the value of its Hollywood Casino at $280 million, Monroe County says Mount Airy Casino — a casino developers told gambling regulars would cost over $340 million to build — is valued at $47 million.”

Monroe chief assessor Tom Hill explained that they assessed Mount Airy as a hotel with slot machines in it, ignoring the huge revenue potential. “If you build a garage and put slot machines in it, it’s still a garage,” he explained.

Other counties have brought in experts who specialize in determining the value of casinos, with much higher results. In fact, when he was told about Monroe’s assessment, Luzerne County commerical and industrial appraiser George Kuchula responded, “That’s absolutely nuts.”

As I read about this, it struck me how amazingly lucky Mount Airy owner Louis DeNaples has been, from the beginning.

For example, the casino law was written so it permitted convicted felons — such as DeNaples, who pleaded no contest to federal fraud charges in the 1970s — to work in the gaming industry as long as their convictions weren’t in the last 15 years. Most states have a blanket prohibition. What’s more, the regulatory process was set up in such a way that full background checks on applicants weren’t possible.

These shortcomings in the law helped clear the decks for Mount Airy to receive a casino license in a highly competitive environment.

You could argue that DeNaples’ luck failed when he was indicted for perjury over his claims about having no ties to organized crime. But then the state Supreme Court hijacked his prosecution, stopping the case in its tracks. In fact, the court seemed more interested in how word got out about grand jury testimony than in what DeNaples may have done. The Dauphin County district attorney finally dropped his charges, his gaming license suspension was lifted, and he was welcomed back to Mount Airy in a festive ceremony last Saturday night.

More power to him, I guess. What bothers me is that this entire episode has mostly reminded us that Pennsylvanians have good reason to question the competence and/or trustworthiness of their official institutions, from top to bottom.

Louis DeNaples is a lucky man. The rest of us, not so much.

And now, let’s test your imagination. Use the Comments to provide a caption for this unusual photo of men at work: